Monday, January 31, 2011

Updated 1/31/2011: Added table with CPU, Memory, and I/O Bandwidth of all five instance types. Also added an example of the “75% of Base Units Consumed” Warning you receive when reaching 580 hours of Windows Azure Compute time usage with an MSDN subscription or Windows Azure Platform Cloud Essentials for Partners benefit, which offer 750 free Small and Extra Small instances, respectively. (See Figure 20 at end of post.)

Updated 1/28/2011: Two weeks after reporting the “Problem with Microsoft Online Services and Duration of Cloud Essentials for Partners Benefit” I received a phone call from Greg with the answer to my question. (See end of post.)

Updated 1/21/2011: Still no solution to the problem reported in my Microsoft Partner Support Request re the “Problem with Microsoft Online Services and Duration of Cloud Essentials for Partners Benefit.” It’s clear that helpnow@microsoft.com isn’t.

Updated 1/17/2011 with figure numbers and other details to convince a member of the Solution Partner Expert Team that I signed up for the Cloud Essentials Pack and not the Platform Introductory Special for Partners on 1/8/2011. (See the “Problem with Microsoft Online Services and Duration of Cloud Essentials for Partners Benefit” section at the end of post)

Becoming a Microsoft Cloud Partner in the Build and Develop category qualifies you for the Cloud Essentials Pack’s Microsoft Online Services Internal Use Rights (IUR) Licenses. The Build and Develop partner category is for organizations who develop and deploy applications on the Windows Azure Platform, rather than resell Microsoft cloud services.

IUR Licenses that include 750 hours per month of an Extra-Small VM compute instance were scheduled to become available on 1/7/2011 (see below). Prior to that date, the Windows Azure Compute benefit was inconsequential; only the free SQL Azure Web Edition database benefit was useful.

Problem with Microsoft Online Services and Duration of Cloud Essentials for Partners Benefit

Update 1/28/2010: Today, two weeks after posting my original service request, I received a phone call from Greg. He stated that the one-month duration shown in Figure 19 (above) is normal and that the duration of the subscription in one year. In the interim, I had learned from an out-of-band source at Microsoft (a Senior Marketing Manager in Microsoft’s US SMB Solution Partners group) that the Cloud Essentials for Partners benefit doesn’t expire. However, it’s classified as “Pay per use,” so the ending Active date is advanced one month at a time automatically.

Ironically, the out-of-band source’s subscription screen capture showed a one-year spread between the two Active dates.

About an hour after Greg called, I received the following message:

The history:

On 1/13/2011, I checked my subscriptions in the MOCP and discovered that the duration of my Cloud Essentials for Partners Benefit had been reduced to one month. I then sent the following message to the Solution Partner Expert team:

The Partner Network Experts Team handed me off to you to solve the following problem with my Windows Azure Platform Cloud Essentials for Partners subscription:

Now the active period appears as one month, as shown below. This is obviously incorrect. What can I do to make sure the benefit lasts for a full year?

[Figure 19]

Thanks in advance,

Roger Jennings

Today, I received this belated mail from Greg at Microsoft Online Technical Service:

Hello Roger,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Services. For your reference, the Service Request ID that has been assigned to your issue is 110117-001384.

I understand that you had a question about the end date changing on your Windows Azure Platform Introductory Special for Partners, subscription number 2141229813.

The reason for this is we are ending the program on March 31, 2011. Fortunately, you will be able to go to the Microsoft Partner Network website and sign up for the Partner Essentials. Here is the link: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40118760.

If you have any further questions, please let us know how we can further assist you.

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Services.

It’s clear to me from Figures 16 and 19 that I have a Cloud Essentials for Partners subscription, not a Windows Azure Platform Introductory Special for Partners subscription. Also, Figure 12 states that the Windows Azure Platform Introductory Special for Partners benefit expires on 1/6/2011 and the Cloud Essentials for Partners starts on 1/7/2011.

“75% of Base Units Consumed” Warning

Here’s a sample of the warning you’ll receive when your usage of Windows Azure compute hours reaches 75% of your free software benefit. In my case, the message relates to my OakLeaf Systems Azure Table Services Sample Project - Paging and Batch Updates Demo running on my MSDN Ultimate subscription benefits, which has a billing period that ends of the 5th of the month. You can expect a similar warning for Windows Azure 30-Day Passes and Windows Azure Platform Cloud Essentials for Partners benefits.

The dual Web role application has been running in Microsoft's South Central US (San Antonio) data center since September 2009. I believe it is the oldest continuously running Windows Azure application.

About Me

I'm a Windows Azure Insider, a retired Windows Azure MVP, the principal developer for OakLeaf Systems and the author of 30+ books on Microsoft software. The books have more than 1.25 million English copies in print and have been translated into 20+ languages.

Full disclosure: I make part of my livelihood by writing about Microsoft products in books and for magazines. I regularly receive free evaluation software from Microsoft and press credentials for Microsoft Tech•Ed and PDC. I'm also a member of the Microsoft Partner Network.